When to start with a walking skeleton
This is an unpublished post. It's likely (more) full of spelling mistakes and errors. It may also end abruptly without a conclusion.
What is a walking skeleton?
From the book Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests:
A “walking skeleton” is an implementation of the thinnest possible slice of real functionality that we can automatically build, deploy, and test end-to-end
So when would I not use this?
If I don’t even know that I’ll need a web service/whatever I don’t worry about a walking skeleton. I hack together anything that takes input and gives output and helps me explore a concept. That way I don’t waste time with infrastructure that I might not need. In other words when I’m definitely treating the code as a prototype (not aiming for an MVP). If I’m planning on throwing the code away.
When do I start with a skeleton?
If I know I’m definitely going to be deploying an API of some kind then I start with getting a walking skeleton for that kind of API up and running. That way I know I’ll always be able to deploy my work.